For collegiate baseball players, the goal is Omaha; for softball players, the goal is Oklahoma City, but for collegiate club tennis players, the goal is Surprise, Ariz. 
For the third straight year, the LSU Tennis Club sent a team to Surprise to compete in the United States Tennis Association’s On Campus College Championship. 
The 2014 LSU team began pool play on Thursday and qualified to compete in the Copper Bracket after losing its three matches in pool play.
LSU was hoping to improve on its 2013 performance, where they reached the semifinals of the Silver Bracket and finished the year ranked 20th in the nation. 
However, the team left disappointed after a groggy performance in pool play cost it the ability to compete for the national title in the Gold Bracket. 
“Last year, we had a team that could’ve probably won the whole thing,” senior Taylor Smith said. “We were actually the only team to beat Georgia, who won the whole thing last year. We were not awake, and we didn’t play to our full potential in our first match [in pool play] against Arizona.” 
The club had improved in each of its performances at Nationals before losing its pool games Thursday. 
As seniors, club President Theo Kennedy, Hayley Everett and Smith hope to build on the success of last year and compete at the level they know the team as a whole is capable of. 
All three have played competitive tennis at the junior level, and Everett competed for the LSU women’s varsity team for two years, but this tournament represents a last chance to develop the name of the program they have built. 
“Now looking back, hopefully we can be that team that’s consistently qualifying for nationals with everybody else,” Smith said.
Nationals will be Everett’s final competitive tournament before she enters medical school, and she said she wants to enjoy her last tournament like she did her first trip to nationals last year. 

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Charles Champagne

LSU civil engineering junior Jamie Hamilton practices Monday, April 7, 2014 in preparation for the Tennis Club going to Nationals.